First off, this is a topic I am so passionate about it will be posted on my non-gaming blog as well. I woke up this morning and read a post from Belghast from my Twitter gaming feed. So far nothing unusual there but the first half of his post made me grind my teeth which is unusual. In response to a blog piece written by someone he follows, he re-tweeted the blog twice and there was some long involved Twitter chatter about it yesterday.

All well and good, nothing abnormal so far but then apparently the chatter devolved when another person chimed in to state that the author of the original blog piece was “pretty”. Apparently, this became objectification of women as sexual objects and the man (presumably) was lectured, instructed, on why this was inappropriate. I freely admit I didn’t read the conversation because quite frankly, I am so incredibly tired of this victim thread/conversation types.

I’m a woman and by God I am sick of this crap from women! A man pays you a compliment and instantly you are a sexual object? Whatever happened to taking the compliment gracefully and moving on? If the behavior is so offensive, then you could have just muted or blocked the offending user instead, as I understand it from Belghast’s blog this morning, the poor bloke got called out on social media for being male.

Yes, it can be uncomfortable as any person when someone else pays you a compliment that is unexpected, unsolicited, and out of left field. But that doesn’t mean you’ve become a sexual object by any means. It used to be a simple act of common courtesy to pay compliments to others. Now it has become grounds for harassment, “objectionification”, and more.

Free speech isn’t just speech that makes you comfortable. Free speech means everyone is free to engage is speech regardless of the feelings of others. You have the choice to engage those whose speech you disagree with either verbally, written, or by ignoring said speaker. You do not have the right to shut down the speech of others because it makes you uncomfortable.

Whatever happened to civil dialogue between those that disagree? Whatever happened to difference of opinion that where freely expressed? Whatever happened to the knowledge that differing ideas are what founded this country and once made Her great?

Oh yeah, political correctness and hurt feelings run amuck happened. If you don’t like the speech of another, then there are better options than playing the victim card. Learn from the differences, engage the other person to see if you can find common ground, ignore them, or just walk away for a while. But please, for the sake of sanity and common dignity don’t play the victim card and deny someone else the right to their freedom of expression.

In what I can only describe as an insane determination to never offend anyone we are losing our ability to create, play, or discuss anything. Women, and this includes me on occasion, become upset when developers fail to provide an option to play as a female or only to play as some ridiculous stereotype of an overly sexualized female. Sexual preferences that aren’t detailed, even when irrelevant to the content matter, are somehow exclusionary and prejudice. Skin color is right there next to sexual preference when it isn’t an option.

Braxwolf just posted a well reasoned and written post on how the setting of Arkham Asylum makes him uncomfortable. He mentions how even the word asylum makes him uncomfortable. My take is entirely different. Batman, main character in the Arkham series, first appeared in 1939 and the world was embroiled in World War II. Batman as written in 1939 most likely wouldn’t be published today. The same with great works like Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, plays by Tennessee Williams, or The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. All of these modern classics would be rejected by publishers for being racist or non-inclusive; or in the case of Tolkien far too long and esoteric.

Imagine the world without Batman, Frodo, Scarlett, or Blanche DuBois. Imagine a world with no Middle Earth and Elvish, or no Gotham City for Bruce Wayne to grow up in and roam at night in his trusty batsuit. Times, situations, language, morals, etc change and evolve to fit the current world. Our changes in mores and values does not give us the right to impose our values on those that have gone before.

Hindsight is 20-20 and viewed through the lens of history doesn’t give us moral superiority. Someday our ancestors will be judging us through that very same lens of history. Will we provide a clean slate free of moral blemish? Instead, let us read, play, and learn from the past.

Batman has cast of criminally insane bad guys that we all love to hate. Don’t force Batman into our politically correct insane world where we quake in fear to call an act of terror and what it is. Don’t try to make Scarlett On Hara anyone other than the strong, resilent, and yes, slave owner she was in the book. The world and all of its inhabitants are flawed, altering the past to suit the present doesn’t change that fact.

Interpreting history with our morals devalues the past. Do you want to be judged 50 years or 200 years for now through their moral lens? Enjoy Arkham Asylum and Batman without the guilt my friend.

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Despite my comfort level with Windows 8 and Office 2013 in general, Word 2013 just blows. It is blogger unfriendly to say the least. No let me rephrase that, it is unusable for bloggers. Why did Microsoft insist on discontinuing it’s fabulous Live Writer program for the failure that is Word2013? Although you can still get your hands on Live Writer via Windows Essentials, here.

Word is just a miserable experience for bloggers. It still refuses to register Blogger accounts for me despite having the requisite patch installed. I can’t get blog titles to display for multiple blogs on the same account. The inability to add tags directly to a post is also missing. Don’t get me started on the lack luster tools for images and videos.

Nope, everything about Live Writer/Windows Essentials is just far and away hands down BETTER from a blogger’s perspective. Now if they would just release a version of Windows Essentials that would work on my Surface RT I’d be even happier.

So if you are a blogger struggling with craptastic Word2013, do yourself a favor and download the Live Writer program contained in Windows Essentials.

As usual, January arrives and the world is scrubbed clean by the elements and the unspoken promise that we all get a clean slate. So, here come this year’s promises to self about changing habits and improving my life and our lives by extension.

Leftovers from last year

Stitching is high on my list this year. I’m planning on making a concerted effort on finishing unfinished projects that are left undone. I need to finish them, some of them aren’t that far from being completed and others are far from finished but I want to work on completing them.

Walking is at the top of my list. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the simple act of walking the dog while listening to a book. There is something so very peaceful and relaxing about walking dogs. I’ve recently been joined by Hubby and our youngest dog.

New for 2014

Last fall my darling husband purchased this bicycle for me and I while I’ve been on it once or twice I have yet to make proper use of it. Not having truly bicycled since my teens, I admit to being intimidated by my lovely mint green cruiser. This year, once it is warmer I am making a promise to myself and Hubby that I will ride my bike on a regular basis. I want to ride it, so I’m chucking my silly fears overboard and relearning to ride a bicycle.

Reading is high on list for the coming year. I used to read a hundred plus books a year no problem but that seems to have fallen off in recent years. This year I am reading a minimum of a hundred books for the simple reason that I love to read. I love discovering new characters and new adventures. I have a good stockpile of books, the real kind and the electronic kind, to read. I have new authors waiting to be discovered and familiar old authors to rediscover and enjoy. I will write reviews on a monthly basis rather than as I finish each book.

Writing is by far the biggest commitment I am making this year. I have ambitious plans which I want to make happen. I need to make a schedule and keep to it. I want to finish the novel and cookbook in the first half of the year. The cookbook is far more difficult to write but hey, who doesn’t love a good challenge.

I need to make and keep a schedule for blog publications as well. I usually just post when I have something to say rather than trying to come up with topics of conversation for the blog. It will be easier for some blogs than others but again, I’m up for the challenge. So here comes the ambitious blog publishing schedule for 2014:

It is a fair but ambitious set of goals I’ve set for myself this year. I want to be up for the challenge. I am looking forward to pushing myself to meet my goals and challenging myself daily. So, no time like the present I’m off to go do something terribly creative somewhere in my world.

Well, tomorrow marks the end of the first month of 2013, so how good have I been so far with implementing new habits? Not perfect, not horrible … so to put it bluntly, I’m 100% fallible human.

Glasses are on order, should be here by St. Valentine’s Day. My prescription had changed, for the worse as expected, and so new bifocals are on order. I am eagerly anticipating the call saying they’ve arrived. I’m tired of squinting and getting headaches from keeping my reading glasses on for too long.

January weather has conspired against me shoving my feet into shoes and walking. Ok, little excuse when there is a treadmill here in the house but the treadmill isn’t inspiring when the weather is frigid (for Arizona) and the house is cold. 20 degree nights, tile floors, and lots of large windows make the house difficult to keep warm. Yes, I know complaining over problems that aren’t really problems but there you go. Hopefully, February will be warmer and thus I will be more motivated to venture outdoors or to the treadmill.

Blogs have been consolidated and posting have been much more frequent. Writing has been pouring from my brain cells lately. Not all of it has actually made it from my brain to paper (so to speak) yet but the ideas are abundant. Truthfully, I need to start writing them down so I can filter them for later use. I’m going to miss my self-imposed deadline for the first draft of the novel but that’s ok. I would rather miss a self-imposed deadline than rush out a piece of crap draft that I’ll end of scrapping.

What I really want to do is stitch! Everything is set-up and waiting for me to be able to actually see the fabric and floss. As soon as I get my new glasses, and have adjusted to bifocals for the first time, I will be stitching like a mad woman. I dream about stitching at this point so you know how much I am looking forward to picking up a needle and floss.

Every year we all make “resolutions” on January 1st with the best of intentions about how we are going to change our lives and improve ourselves. For most of this, resolutions are but a fleeting memory come February 1st. So this year I’ve decided to buck the trend and not make a single resolution, because who am I kidding not once that I can recall have I ever fulfilled a resolution made on New Year’s Day. It’s not that I’m not planning on making changes to my life but rather than making meaningless resolutions, I’m going to make some habit changes in my life.

So how does a habit change differ from a resolution? Well truthfully, it doesn’t, but it also means that there will be far less “guilt” when I stumble and more determination to get back on track. I’ll assess at the end of the year if this word play change was successful, if not than 2014 will see neither resolutions or habits marring the new year.

First habit change I’m making walking more. Before DH and I met, our oldest dog and I would walk a couple of miles a day, every day. It had several benefits. Wally, the dog, loved it and would be dragging me out the door when I otherwise wouldn’t have bothered. I loved it because slowly I lost weight without even realizing it. I also loved that walking every day let me read (aka listen) to books I otherwise wouldn’t have had time to read. I miss walking and I know Wally does too, and thus it is one habit I’m getting back into immediately. DH will either learn to join us with the younger dog, Sangria, or the dogs will have to learn to share walks with me on alternating days. And when it gets too hot here to walk, then I will be utilizing the treadmill instead.

Second change I’m making is writing more frequently. I have a half completed cookbook that I just need to sit down and finish. I also have the beginnings of a decent mystery novel if I would just sit down and work on it a little more consistently. The cookbook and the novel are very high on my list of priority completions for the first half of the year. I just need to suck it up and completely get over my phobia about working on those two items in front of DH. There is just something so intensely personal when it comes to writing those, as opposed to blogging which I can now do with him in the room without problem.

Third change is a two-parter. First is blog consolidation for personal blogs, this does not include Game Couples blog. If I can figure out how to make those formerly independent blogs go to their separate pages on this blog I would be thrilled. If not, then I will just have to come up with a system to distinguish one topic from another. This should be very easily accomplished and shouldn’t be a blip on the screen a week from now. The second part is to blog more frequently and by more frequently I mean several times a week. I’ve said this before but this time I’m making it happen. Writing is something I love and even if no one else ever reads these posts besides DH, I’m fine with that too.

Fourth habit is one that is hard to describe but makes perfect sense in my head, to feel more girly. I’m blessed with a DH who doesn’t care if I wear make-up or lacy lingerie and I’m glad. I don’t miss the daily war paint or the need to have lingerie just to entice him. I do miss taking a hour or two a week to do my nails and so 2013 will see a return of painted fingers and toes for me. Just that one simple change will go a long way to feeling more girly for me.

Last habit that is changing this year regards stitching. Once I get new glasses, god how I need new glasses for stitching, I am stitching multiple times a week. Yep it will cut into my gaming and reading free time but I have too many project I miss working on and I want completed. There is also the project I need to start and have completed in the next several years for my parents Fifth Wedding Anniversary. I already know it is going to take me several years to complete that one and thus now is the time to start since June will have them celebrate their 46th anniversary this year.

The list isn’t long as far as changes go but add them all up and over time cumulatively they will make a big impact on my life. DH and the flock remain my primary concern and will always come first. But, that doesn’t mean I have to only make their wants and needs my only goals. So, 2013 what exciting curve balls do you have planned to throw my way?

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It’s been a while since my last post. Real life caught up to me and I lost all motivation to blog there for a while. I’m going to try and get the book posts caught up tonight, so 4 April through today 21 April. Ambitious goal if I’m honest but here goes nothing.

by Michelle Rene Goodhew. I am focused on the business of writing, being an artist, and general self improvement. I am seeking commissions as an artist doing portraits, illustration or graphic design. You can contact me by email: goodhewmichelle@gmail.com

An award free blog. Thank you so much for stopping by, your "likes" (or not), and your comments. I appreciate each of you and enjoy your blogs and your creativity. So here's to a new year of friends, photos, and words!